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Following the alarming arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and threats of arrest to Members of Congress due to a recent oversight visit to the Delaney Hall ICE detention facility, U.S. Representatives Veronica Escobar (TX-16), Maxwell Frost (FL-10), and Jason Crow (CO-6) today sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons to condemn the recent events and urge them to issue clarifying direction to DHS personnel about the explicit legal right that a Member of Congress has to access a detention center. 

“During a site visit by three Members of Congress – Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez, and LaMonica McIver – Newark Mayor Ras Baraka waited outside in a fenced-in parking lot as protestors gathered on the other side of the fence,” they wrote. “He was told to leave the fenced-in part of the parking lot and, despite complying with the request, was arrested by ICE agents. Subsequently, a DHS spokesperson indicated that arrests of the attending Members of Congress are ‘on the table,’ alleging that one of them ‘body-slammed’ an ICE officer – a claim uncorroborated by witnesses or available video evidence.”

They continued, “The Department itself has affirmed the oversight duties of Members of Congress in guidance posted by ICE dated to February 2025. Arresting Members of Congress for performing their lawful oversight duties cannot be ‘on the table’ because that action would be explicitly unlawful.”

“We anticipate your prompt confirmation that clarifying direction has been given by May 17, 2025,” the representatives concluded.

The full text of the letter can be read here.